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Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Admission Requirements

We are currently accepting applications for the Fall 2015 Cohort!

The fall semester will begin on August 31, 2015. We evaluate all DNP applications on a rolling basis, however we recommend that interested applicants apply as early as possible. A limited number of seats are available and the cohort typically fills each semester.

Describe your area of interest (e.g. advanced clinical practice, administration, education, etc.) and a potential clinical problem that you plan to focus on as your identified topic in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program of study. Include why you are interested in this problem, why it is relevant for the current society, why it potentially warrants practice change, and how it is relevant to the role of the DNP graduate. The essay should be around 500 words.

Documentation of Clinical Experience:

As the DNP degree is a clinical doctorate, the 1000 post-baccalaureate clinical hour requirement as stated in The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice (AACN, 2006) must be strictly adhered to and the hours must be completed in a healthcare setting prior to degree conferral. Since Chatham's program is a post-masters DNP program, Chatham requires that each applicant provides sufficient and accurate evidence of the completion of 500 supervised hours achieved post-baccalaureate, and already completed upon entering into Chatham's DNP program. While enrolled in the DNP program, the remaining 500 supervised hours will be completed. Applicants that have earned an advanced practice certification (e.g. NP, CRNA*, CNS, and CNM) must provide a copy of their current national certification as evidence of having completed 500 supervised clinical hours since completing a baccalaureate nursing education program. *NBCRNA certificate holders must submit a copy of their NBCRNA transcript as provided by NBCRNA. This transcript will specifically reference the number of practice hours in the applicant's program.

Applicants who have not yet earned an advanced practice certification must provide a thorough description of the supervised clinical/practicum hours completed while enrolled in an NP, CRNA, CNS, or CNM program as validated by an official transcript.
Acceptable descriptions include:

Course syllabi that demonstrate the number of clinical hours required in each course,

Official clinical logs which record the clinical hours in each course,

An official letter from the Master's program director, and

An official letter from the mentor who supervised the required clinical hours.

Students who have not completed a master's curriculum inclusive of 500 academically supervised clinical hours may apply to Chatham as a Non-Degree Seeking student to pursue these hours. Chatham offers NUR697 Nursing Clinical Practicum, a 3 credit course which includes 250 supervised clinical hours. Students may register for this course twice if needed, however the course may not be taken twice within the same semester. Students may begin the process of applying for formal DNP admission while enrolled in their final semester of NUR697. It is important to note that Non-Degree completion of NUR697 does not guarantee or imply automatic admission to the Chatham DNP program. If you have additional questions about registration in this course, please contact the Admission Office at (412) 365-1498.

Are you on NursingCAS? If so, this is an alternate DNP application method. Instead of applying directly to Chatham, you could apply to the centralized NursingCAS application service, making it convenient to apply to several universities at once. Submit your online application through the centralized NursingCAS system. This will enable you to upload all required documents electronically to the central system.*

*NursingCAS is an online, centralized application service for nursing programs. Applicants interested in taking advantage of this method should visit http://www.nursingcas.org to start your application. For additional Chatham-specific instructions for submitting your DNP application, please follow the instructions at this link.

Explanation of Evidence-Based Practice

When preparing your admissions materials, all applicants should keep in mind the role of Evidence-Based Practice within the scope of the DNP. For a better explanation, view this video presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Gazza, instructor in Chatham's DNP program.